Doña Carmen is the daughter of a wealthy businessman. She falls in love with Don Luis, a simple miner. When her father discovers that she is seeing a simple miner he forbids her to leave the house and her companion, Doña Brigida, becomes her guardian. However, Don Luis discovers that from the balcony of the house across the alleyway he can touch Doña Carmen and kiss her hand, that is how narrow the alley is. The lovers devise a plan to elope and get married. Unfortunately Carmen's father discovers their plan...

El callejón del Beso is an existing alley in Guanajuato, that is visited by lovers from all over the world to kiss each other. Just like Don Luis and Doña Carmen did 200 years ago.

Features

• 430 unique words; total word count: 2767
• 28 pages of text
• written in past tense
• Neutral Spanish with several Latin-American characteristics: more use of personal pronouns than in Spain, and the use of 'ustedes' instead of 'vosotros'.
• setting: Guanajuato (Mexico), 200 years ago

For teachers

This reader has a level between A1 and A2. You could call it the Mexican version of Romeo and Juliet. Remarkable detail is that the alleyway in the story is an existing place which can be visited to this day. Because the story is set 200 years ago the author has chosen to use some old-fashioned words, like Don and Doña and the polite form of address usted. The story is easy to read and not very long, so it is well suited to be read individually. Reading it in class is another good option which could stimulate discussion of themes like Mexico, the city of Guanajuato and famous (forbidden) love stories. In combination with classroom activities reading becomes a joy indeed.

Would you like to order a class set? We will give you a 10% discount on 25 or more copies of the same title. Please, order the novels via e-mail. Due to relatively small stock numbers, please allow 2-3 weeks for your order.

Note: All the materials are copyrighted, which means that it is not permitted to make copies for use in the classroom.